Antioch murder suspect holds his 2 kids hostage

FROM EXAMINER STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

Published 4:00 am, Friday, July 10, 1998

ANTIOCH - A suspect in a 1995 murder was holding his two children as hostages in a house here Friday and has exchanged shots with police who have evacuated the surrounding neighborhood, authorities said.

The gunman's girlfriend and her parents, whose names were not immediately released, managed to escape. It was unclear whether the suspect was also holding hostage a man he may have wounded, police said.

Otherwise, no one had been reported injured in the tense situation that began at 6:10 a.m. Friday in the 1300 block of Putnam Street. Police said the children in the house may be as young as 1 and 4 years old.

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The gunman, identified by police as Carlos Joseph Ramirez, 22, is wanted for the slaying of a 15-year-old Antioch boy in 1995 and the shooting of several people in 1994. He is wanted on a $1 million warrant.

After the standoff began, police went door to door ordering residents of a one-block area around the house to leave their homes.

"They (police) said there were shots fired and there was someone with a gun holding a family hostage in a house that's up the block," neighbor Ron Covello told Oakland television station KTVU. "It's kind of early to wake up to something like this in this neighborhood." &lt;